


Guardians of the Galaxy: Mystic Mix

by darthrevan4513



Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-01
Updated: 2019-04-01
Packaged: 2019-12-30 17:01:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,245
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18319529
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darthrevan4513/pseuds/darthrevan4513





	Guardians of the Galaxy: Mystic Mix

Guardians of the Galaxy: _Mystic Mix_

 

Track 1: Just Another Bug Hunt

 

Two years. 

 

It had been two years since the Guardians dealt with a threat to the galaxy like Ego or Ronan. Which was fine and dandy for the inhabitants of the many worlds that inhabited the universe but for the, relatively, small creature in universe named Rocket Raccoon—peace was a bitch. He used to be doing quite well for himself and Groot before he had to split the take **seven** ways for every job. Rocket couldn’t complain though since Quill made sure everyone on the team was able to keep going. So, in the end, Rocket wasn’t that annoyed. 

 

The Raccoon thought that after dealing with two maniacs in a row, his life would go back to being normal for a good long while. Well, at least as normal life could be when a military experiment that was granted sapience roaming around the universe raising a pre-teen plant.

 

Unfortunately, life with the Guardians was never normal. 

 

…

 

“So, you suggest we stop heading to a fine, sinful planet full of our allies wishing to honor your foster father to pick up some valuables that could not even exist from an unmarked planet? Have you lost your mind or are you trying to assassinate us for a new pod-eye.” Drax asked in an incredulous tone. Quill rolled his eyes, “you put it so badly. We’re making a little stop to see if the tip I heard from my _reliable_ source is true. It’s an unmarked planet full of a few primitives. They haven’t even discovered VCRs they’re no threat.” Star-lord exclaimed.

 

Drax narrowed his eyes and walked over to Quill so he was staring him eye to eye, just inches apart. “I think you have lost your mind…what person spells out a word instead of saying it. Who is this Vcr?” Quill threw his head back in frustration, he considered Drax a good friend but he was always surprised with what social mannerisms flew over his head. “It’s…nevermind. You guys get what I mean though? I love Yondu, he sacrificed himself like a badass.” 

 

“Like Billy in _Predator_ …?” Mantis asked, her head tilted curiously and her antennae glowing in excitement. Peter looked ahead blankly, nodding along just to keep the conversation moving. “Sort of. The point is I knew Yondu well and he’d call us idiots if we passed up a score this big for something like a party. I’m talking a First Fallen artifact here!” Rocket sighed, torn between calling Quill an idiot and voting to go on the mission.

 

According to legend, the First Fallen were the first race enslaved by the Celestials eons ago. They were also the first species that rebelled against the god-like beings and were subsequently destroyed. Now, any remnants of the First Fallen species were priceless…as well as unheard of. Rocket couldn’t help but feel excited, a priceless artifact was just waiting to be taken and the obstacle they had were a bunch of backward savages who didn’t know what a unit was.

 

Gamora crossed her arms with a huff, “I can’t believe you’d just believe some guy you met in a dive bar. Have we heard of him?” She asked Quill. The Terran took a step away from Drax, who was still looking at him like he was replaced by the Thing, and said, “Hell, I haven’t even heard of him but he sounded so upset when I slipped away with the coordinates and his datapad just so happened to have been swiped…I think it has to be true.” Quill said with a laugh. Rocket and Drax burst out laughing. Mantis looked confused before forcing herself to laugh along. Gamora just shook her head at how Quill could turn heel at a moment’s notice. She looked to her sister, Nebula, who was sat on a few munitions crates, staring at Quill.

 

Gamora clapped her hands to get everyone attention before hurriedly saying, just trying to get his over with, “then let’s vote to see if we are going to do this. I say we just keep moving and come back later.” Nebula nodded, “I say we don’t let Quill choose jobs anymore.” Quill scoffed, “that’s pretty big talk for the newest member of the Guardians. Mantis is ahead of you by a few hours.” Nebula looked at Mantis, who cheered in response, before rolling her eyes. Quill ran a hand over his chin as he said, “also…I may set the Milano to head that way already so…we might as well get off and take a looksie.”

 

Gamora and Nebula were done with this stupidity and left the meeting area to go vent at the human’s behavior elsewhere. Rocket just laughed, “well, that’s one way to strongarm us into looking for that crap. Come on, Groot, we need to double check the guns.” Groot happily followed along, holding a hand over his head to keep the Terran baseball cap Quill gave him firmly on his head. Drax just looked at everyone walking away with confusion, “he betrayed us again. This is mutiny, why are we not beheading him and throwing his corpse into the nearest star!?” Mantis looked at him with a shrug, “maybe they are planning to do it when he isn’t expecting it.” Drax narrowed his eyes with a nod before walking to his own room to contemplate on when to act. Mantis wondered if she had read the situation correctly as she ran off after Nebula.

 

…

 

“Damn it, Quill!” Rocket groaned as he struggled to keep a hold of the unconscious Gamora’s pant leg. The slender fingers trembling as they clung to his own legs made him even more desperate to securely grab the woman. “Please…get up quick…puppy,” Mantis grunted as she struggled to bear the weight Rocket and Gamora. Then Rocket finally got a good hold of Gamora by locking his hands around her oddly soft but muscular thigh. “Mantis, can you reach my aero-rig…?” Rocket grunted as he tried to look at her over his shoulder. “If I reach to try then you’ll fall,” Mantis insisted. 

 

Rocket looked down at Gamora, feeling his arms start to burn from the strain of holding her up. A thought crossed his mind and he sighed. The idea was so stupid it was more fit to come from Quill than him but Rocket didn’t have much choice. “But do you think you could reach my aero-rig if you had a free hand!?” Rocket yelled. Mantis nodded, “what are yo—” The girl’s voice caught on her throat as she saw Rocket suddenly drop Gamora. She gasped in shock, “she may be gratuitously dense but that’s horrid!”

 

“Oh shaddap!” Rocket spat before he slapped the activation switch on his chest and caused aero-rig to materialize. Mantis suddenly realized why Rocket dropped her and let him go, “be quick!” She said, almost sounding like she was cheering him on. If Rocket wasn’t darting to catch Gamora before she was turned to mulch, he would’ve chuckled at the thought of risking his life for anyone besides Groot. Gamora suddenly bounced off a thick branch jutting from the massive trees around them and was sent careening toward a blood red tree covered with thorned bark. Rocket threw his hands to his sides and struggled to reach the Zehoberei. 

 

Rocket barely managed to wrap his arms around her waist and adjust his weight so his thrusters would try to push him away from the hellish tree. As he struggled not to become a porcupine Rocket cursed, “why in the hell did I listen to you, Quill.”

 

…

 

_About Half an Hour Ago_

 

Rocket felt like an idiot and, once again, it was due to him buying into one of Quill’s sales pitches. Quill heard about how the planet’s inhabitants were even bigger simpletons than his people on Earth and claimed he knew the right way to get them to give up the First Fallen artifact. Rocket had never interacted with a people so primitive, save for when some guys got ridiculously hammered, so he followed Quill’s lead.

 

Due to this, Rocket was now butt naked wearing a bandolier across his chest and holding a Plasma Caster, a direct energy weapon with a gimmicky archaic design to make it resemble a primitive weapon called a bow. Gamora and Nebula outright refused to go along with the plan and were dressed normally and were armed with Godslayer and electroshock batons, respectively. Mantis only had a small blaster on her belt and for some reason Quill wanted her to wear this weird skimpy armor that was basically a metal set of a bra and panties. Mantis was convinced to go along with this by Nebula and Quill relented, asking her to wear a long white cloak instead. Drax didn’t understand the idea of changing his appearance to fool others so Quill just asked him to wait for a signal to attack for once. Rocket was positive Drax wouldn’t listen for such a signal, though.

 

Quill himself was wearing a plain white shirt and a dingy black vest that wasn’t even buttoned. He also kept fidgeting with his belt the whole time the Guardians made their descent to the no-name planet. Rocket was impressed with the height of the crisscrossing vegetation canopy covering the majority of the planet. The vegetation didn’t look like any tree Rocket had seen and instead resembled a drab, dried out coral reef. A little concerned due to the strange flora Rocket glanced over at the terminal that detailed the planet’s properties to double check that they could walk around with respiratory equipment. Rocket confirmed that the atmosphere was perfect for all of their species and was almost mystified. “Crazy how many different directions life can go from the same starting point,” the raccoon pondered as the _Milano_ started to descend past the canopy into a small clearing.

 

As the landing gear of the _Milano_ met the forest floor Rocket glanced out a viewport and was surprised to see that what appeared to be the planet’s sapient inhabitants had gathered at the edge of the forest. They looked…pretty horrifying.

 

They appeared to be some sort of arthropod species but, unlike Mantis, they were far more insectoid than humanoid. They had large mandibles, multiple glassy black eyes, digitigrade legs and had multi-colored exoskeletons that covered their entire bodies. The coloration of their exoskeletons seemed to vary for each individual but they all had drag green, brown and tan streaks along their chitin so they could blend in with the surrounding foliage. Were it not for the ornate, neon blue headdress and shaw the creature in the center was wearing Rocket could’ve easily missed them. 

 

The Guardians walked down the loading ramp for the ship as it lowered before coming to a stop a few meters away from the tribal residents of the planet. Quill swallowed dryly, he knew that the different communicator implants the team had were full of thousands of alien languages and dialects so there was a good chance he himself could negotiate for the artifact. The human took a deep breath before saying, “we are divine beings that need this artifact for the greater good. So we can bring balance to the whole world!” Quill then held up a handheld holo-projector that displayed an image of the treasure he sought. The tribals looked with interest before chittering to one another, the creature with the ornate clothing appearing the most animated. Peter looked at his teammates with a cheeky grin, he knew this would go well. Hell, Peter wasn’t even completely lying when he said taking the artifact would help their world, without treasure to steal, no hotheaded idiot like him would show up to this no-name planet. The fact that he couldn’t understand the aliens’ chatter didn’t slip past Starlord, though, his implant clearly didn’t recognize the language.

 

Quill turned to Gamora and Nebula, who both looked a little amazed that his plan was working, and asked the cyborg, “well, they like the holo buy my implant isn’t working. I need you to say we come in peace then sort of sum up that amazing talk I just gave.” Starlord said with a little grin. Nebula blinked before she stared at Quill like he was insane. “My implant can’t translate that either. It’s an Elgoog like yours!” Nebula insisted. Quill rolled his eyes, “well, duh I can see the logo on your neck, I meant like some suped up translator. You have one of those right?” Nebula looked at Gamora in disbelief before saying, “I’m not a damn toolbox, why would I have two translators?!”

 

Quill blinked. “Well, maybe we can—” The human started before he was abruptly interrupted when a massive insect with hundreds of legs burst from the ground. The Guardians were barely able to leap far enough away from the creature to avoid being swallowed in its chitinous maw. 

 

“This could work for us! Kill it and we can sucker up to these primitive screwheads!” Quill declared, ever the optimist. As if on cue, the megapede adjusted its body so it’s glassy eyes were focused on Quill, allowing him to see one of the tribals was holding the monster’s feelers like a set of reigns. “It seems they wouldn’t want us to kill it,” Drax said, stating the obvious. “Then let’s—” Starlord tried to recommend before he was cut off by a deafening fluttering. 

 

He turned to the source of the noise in time to see a massive moth-like creature swoop down at his team. Gamora and Mantis were completely enclosed in its claws but Rocket had his torso hanging free between its crooked fingers. Groot tried to reach for Rocket but the raccoon evaded his grasping vines, “stay with Drax!” Rocket ordered his foster son before the creature gained height and flew away. Quill angrily started firing at the creature’s wings, aiming to force it to the ground. Unfortunately, the sound of the megapede breaking through the nearby coral tree’s blood-red branches in another mad charge forced Quill to scoop up Groot and run into the dense brush. 

 

Drax fell in behind Quill while Nebula ran alongside him yelling, “how could you be so idiotic to think this would work!?” Quill growled as the rough seaweed-like brush met his cheeks during his sprint.

 

“It worked for Luke, damn it!”

 

…

 

_Now_

 

Rocket carefully laid Gamora’s unconscious body out on the vaguely unsharp branch Mantis had landed on. The rough coral-like tree they were stood on seemed to be quite old as the surface was brittle enough that it would cave into a soft, goopy paste when stepped on. However, the fact that the tree three fully grown people were stood one was weak didn’t exactly comfort Rocket. He glanced above them and saw the creature that seized him and his friends had been unfortunate enough to be impaled by one of the tree’s stronger branches. 

 

“Hey, Mantis, the next time I say to make the flying monster drop us, maybe don’t make him go to sleep. We could’ve been stuck with a stupid face right next to him.” Rocket half-joked, half-advised. Mantis let out a hearty laugh as she nodded, “I should be careful! We almost _died_!” Rocket gave her an uncomfortable smile as she was quite cheery after nearly accomplishing a murder-suicide. Mantis’ social ineptness did make him wonder, though. Would he rather have no clue regarding social interactions like Drax or be as emotionally confused as Mantis. “Either way I’d leagues more charming than these knuckleheads,” Rocket decided with a chuckle before he shook his head to focus on the situation at hand.

 

The sole male present motioned to Gamora and asked Mantis if she could wake her. The empath nodded before she crawled over to Gamora, having much more difficulty walking on the uneven branch then Rocket due to her physiology.Mantis slowly reached for Gamora’s forehead only for Rocket to seize her wrist. She jumped as he quickly said, “actually, she is pretty damn terrifying when she’s friendly. I’ll take some precautions real quick then you wake her.” Mantis shrugged and lowered her hand, watching with interest as Rocket started digging in his pack.

 

…

 

Gamora felt soreness rock her body as she slowly gained consciousness. She then noticed she felt someone’s hand on her forehead, “no more!” She yelled before she shook the hand away and tried to swing at whoever touched her, only to find herself unable to lift her arms. She blinked and her eyes focused enough that she saw Mantis looking at her with wide eyes and Rocket stood beside the girl with a smug grin on his face. “She _did_ try to kill me, just like you said!” Mantis said, shocked. Rocket laughed, saying he knew Gamora pretty well at this point. Gamora turned her nose up at the raccoon, feeling a tad embarrassed.

 

Rocket let out a low, satisfied sigh at Gamora’s expense before growing serious. “We’re safe now, separated from the others, but safe.” Rocket insisted as he undid the fiber cord ties he placed on Gamora so she could stand up. “Which way did we fly in from? Have you started guesstimating how away we are?” The Zehoberei asked as she checked her belt to make sure she didn’t lose anything in the flight. “Don’t worry, I got everything under control. We can just ping their trackers and go right to ‘em.” Rocket insisted as he started fidgeting with his datapad. Gamora nods, feeling a bit of relief.

 

Then the realization hit her.

 

“What trackers are you referring to, Rocket?” Gamora said, her voice gaining a hostile edge that made Rocket go stiff before he let out a shaky scoff. “Well, I like to make sure I know where Groot is at all times and those jackasses are always getting into trouble so I snuck some trackers onto them. It’s harmless.” Rocket excused nonchalantly as he pulled up a topographical map. He didn’t hear Gamora stand up and made her way to him across the narrow branch with ease. She then peeked at the datapad over his shoulder and growled, “then why are their _four_ tracking indicators. Did you bug Nebula?” 

 

Rocket scoffed, “I don’t know her, she could go nuts.”

 

Gamora then quickly pressed a button so that the datapad would reorient so it’d show their current location. Rocket scrambled to get the pad back but not before Gamora clearly saw two trackers blinking on the map of their current whereabouts. She glowered at Rocket as he searched for the others’ coordinates once again. “What, I like to know where people are. It’s fun. Now, please, let’s just get moving,” Rocket grumbled as he activated his aero-rig and took off. Gamora shook her head as she did the same and yelled, “you’re getting rid of those after this!”

 

…

 

Quill tried to control his breathing and resist the urge the suck in air to soothe his burning leg muscles as he hid behind a tree. He was trying to listen and see if the tribals ended up following him and Nebula as he planned instead of Drax and Groot. The only thing he heard was the shifting of Nebula’s boots as she was kneeling beside him against the trunk. 

 

“What kind of idiot bases his plan off a children’s film…” Nebula whispered with venom as she held her DL-17 blaster at the ready. Quill threw his head back with an exasperated expression, “hey, it was a pretty heavy children’s film. You don’t see dead teddy bears in _E.T._ ” The Terran said, trying to defend himself only to notice the cyborg was staring at him. He locked eyes with her and swore not to back down, he knew Nebula’s type—she would only respect him if he showed he had a backbone. After a moment of tense silence, Nebula’s gaze faltered and the few sections of sapphire skin exposed on her face gained a lighter hue for some reason. Quill raised an eyebrow in confusion only for the guttural language of the locals to force him back into his current predicament.

 

To Quill’s shock the voices, accompanied by loud footsteps, were quickly approaching from their exposed flank. Before he could react, Nebula grabbed him by the hips and dragged him into a nearby bush. A split second later a pair of the tribals walked down the nearby trail with a pair of flying insects the size of Rocket flying alongside them. “Maybe they are looking for our scent,” Nebula thought, doubting they would go through the trouble of bringing around such beasts while looking for off-worlders. The giant insects could at least clear jungle as they pursued the Guardians. Nebula carefully and quietly moved so she draped her body over Quill’s, which made him give the cyborg an awkward glance before she released a set of predator pheromones to hopefully scare off the service creatures.

 

Quill thought Nebula was making an ill-timed move on him…until she sprayed some funky liquid out of vents running down her body. The liquid smelled like the spray of a breed of skunk as large as a bear. It took everything Quill had not to gag but Nebula saw the pheromones had the desired effect. The flying insects paused on the trail before they darted off back up the trail. The tribals that were following the flyers exchanged a glance before they followed their hounds with panicked squeaks.

 

As soon as the footsteps disappeared, Quill rolled out from under Nebula and started spitting to rid his body of the stink. “Damn it, thanks! I guess…” Quill whisper-yells, thinking of how ridiculous the idea of Gamora’s sister having a thing for him was. Not that he was bothered by the thought of Nebula being interested in him since his relationship with Gamora was fleeting at best. She’d be all touchy with him but a few days into them having a sort of “thing” she’d become distant again. 

 

Quill blinked, realizing he had been staring at Nebula while he was lost in thought. For some reason, her sapphire cheeks were dusted with a light blue once again. “Sorry about that, I was thinking,” Quill explained. Nebula shook her head with a sigh before saying, “it’s fine. We need to get to the others and I saw them go south.” Quill nodded before he drew his second quad blaster from a concealed holster tucked in the back of his pants. 

 

_…_

 

Rocket, Gamora, and Mantis struggled to use their aero-rigs to navigate between a tight cluster of coral trees. However, the clustered trees weren’t the only thing that made the Guardians’ journey difficult. Rocket had instructed them to activate their aero-rigs in bursts so that the rigs’ deafening afterburners wouldn’t engage and create even more sound than necessary. “I knew I should’ve brought ascension cables just in case but Peter was so damn annoying about the characters we gotta play,” Rocket complained to his companions. Mantis chuckled. Gamora shook her head with a sigh. “Chewie doesn’t wear a backpack!” The raccoon continued, imitating the Guardians’ leader. Mantis had to cover her mouth so she wouldn’t burst out laughing, “maybe he was assuming the locals would be too distracted by your cute tail so they wouldn’t try to eat you?” Rocket didn’t dignify that thought with a response.

 

A moment later, Mantis burst out laughing. Rocket felt chills. “She sure has a sick sense of humor. Probably Ego’s fault,” He thought before the familiar warcry of Drax got his attention. “Groot!” Rocket yelled before he flung himself down to the source of Drax’s voice, not caring about the noise any longer. Gamora followed suit, trying to catch up to Rocket. As she closed in on him she heard him muttering to himself. Promising to himself he wouldn’t lose him again. She was shocked. It was clear the small being loved Groot but the tender tone to his voice was…strange but not something she disliked. True concern for another being was something Gamora never really got to see, as a child or an adult.

 

When Rocket broke through the last cluster of branches he flinched at the sight of one of those massive creatures that sprang out from the ground during their meeting. Then Rocket noticed the creature had its head severed and Drax was stood between its decapitated head and the rest of its body. Rocket landed behind Drax just in time to see he had caught the giant creature’s rider.The sapient insect saw Rocket and panicked before it tried to pierce Drax with a hidden stinger on the tip of its abdomen. Rocket was horrified to see the stinger make contact and started to run up to shoot the bastard, only to see the stinger failed to pierce Drax’s hide. 

 

“Oh, well, this is on you, idiot,” Rocket said to the arthropod, who looked at him with fear. The raccoon almost felt bad for the arthropod when Drax pounded the insect’s head into a nearby boulder and knocked him out. “Where’s Groot!?” Rocket demanded, Drax pointed to the other side of the megapede carcass just as Gamora and Mantis landed. Rocket hurried past the hulking man to check on Groot and Gamora followed closely. Once Rocket rounded the violet viscera leaking from the monster’s stump he let out a sigh of relief. “He’s fine then, why did Drax have him hide out of sight then?” Gamora pondered before she caught up to Rocket and saw the answer.

 

Groot wasn’t hiding. The plant being, who had the physical appearance of a ten-year-old humanoid, had impaled a trio of the insect tribesmen with a sharpened extension of his forearm. The sapling was already looking to Rocket for acknowledgment, who gave it in the form of a thumbs-up, then he turned to Gamora and smiled as he withdrew his vine extension and let the bodies drop. Gamora let out a nervous laugh before saying that Groot’s combat was really improving, which excited the bark-covered boy.

 

“Yeah, yeah, another cushy reunion. Now, watch my back while I try to bring up the tracker on those boneheads. They’re probably halfway on the other side of the planet without us,” Rocket muttered as he pulled out his datapad. “Or they could be right behind you, what tracker?” Quill yelled as he walked up to the rest of the group with Nebula beside him. Gamora started to answer but upon seeing Rocket recoil she sighed. “Nothing, we were going to see about scanning for signals given off by your plasma weapons. What matters is what do we do now that we’re together?” The Zehoberei asked. “We’re going to act like some stupid characters and have them just _hand over_ the artifact right Quill?” Rocket said sarcastically as he glared at the sole Terran in the Guardians. “Hey! This would’ve gone fine if the locals weren’t straight from LV-426.” Quill insisted. “I never heard of that place, what’s on it?” Rocket asked in earnest. Quill just sighed.

 

“Forget the planet. I do admit since we can’t talk to these bugs finding the artifact is pretty much impossible.” Quill said dejectedly. Nebula looked at him before looking at Gamora, the sisters both felt a bit of sympathy for the Terran, he usually didn’t take one of is plans failing so hard. Quill suddenly shook his head to break out of his slump and said, “well, at least we can swing around back here after the Ravager meet-up. Someone has to have some mining-level core scanners.” The Guardians, save for Mantis and Groot, let out a sigh as Quill deployed his helmet and started to remotely pilot the _Milano_ to pick them up.

 

Drax looks at everyone before saying, “we’re coming back here with better scanners? How? The moment anyone hears Quill starts telling what happened to us they’ll think we’re imbeciles for dressing up to fool a bunch of tribals. It was a very stupid idea.” Quill lowered his shoulders as he piloted his ship. Nebula turned away from the group and suppressed a quiet chuckle, much to the amazement of Gamora who noticed such a rare event. 

 

…

 

Quill and Rocket raced up the loading ramp of the _Milano_ so that they could get the ship off the forest floor as quickly as possible. Drax was shoved away from the battle and up the ramp by Mantis, who was leading Groot by the hand, so they could leave. Lastly, the estranged daughters of Thanos ran inside the M-ship before deciding to hug the sides of the door frame and to keep firing blasters to prevent the insects from entering the ship.

 

Once he made it to the ship controls Rocket sealed the ramp doors and started to mow down the massive insect mounts coming for blood with the ship’s cannons. “Damn, you’re fast!” Quill admitted as he hopped into the main pilot’s chair and yanked back on the yoke to reorient the _Milano_ so it was facing directly skyward. “Everybody, hang on to something!” He yelled before he engaged the in-atmosphere thrusters. His M-ship started to break through the branches of the forest. Rocket started to laugh maniacally as he fired upon as many of the flying creatures that attacked him as possible.

 

…

 

Once the _Milano_ made its way into the upper atmosphere, where no flying creature could hope to reach, Quill set the navicomputer to Contraxia. When Quill first became a pilot he was disappointed travel wasn’t as instant as on TV but he was glad his ship could make the proper faster-than-light jumps and course corrections while the Guardians could relax. “We could’ve had so much more time each road trip if Vanagons had this, Mom.” Quill thought, having a rare moment of regret. “If only…” He muttered aloud, feeling anger burning in his gut, it had been over a year but the anger he had for that _monster_ hadn’t abated. The sound of Rocket getting out of his seat quickly brought Quill back to reality. “No time for that now,” Quill told himself before he followed Rocket out of the cockpit.

 

Quill and Rocket entered the main chamber of the _Milano_ and found the rest of the Guardians taking a breather. “That one was pretty close for a while. We almost got impaled on a few trees!” Mantis told Drax excitedly. The large man laughed, “that’s nothing we were separated that monster then the young Groot and I had to dispatch one of those multi-legged beasts and all its riders! We certainly could’ve died at any moment!” Quill winced at how blunt the two were about his plan nearly ending in their demise. “I am Groot.” The sapling said as he sat on a munitions crate with his feet dangling off the edge. “Groot, you don’t have to listen to any idea as stupid as that ever again. You can just stay on the ship and can inevitably wander into even more trouble,” Rocket said with an exasperated sigh. Quill’s form shrank even more, almost physically feeling the weight of their words bearing down on him. “Yeah, Peter, I get you had the best intentions but we shouldn’t take jobs where we don’t have the specifics down.” Gamora said, trying not to be as rough on the Terran as the others. Quill nodded.

 

Nebula looked at all the Guardians with disbelief. Quill had nearly got them killed and they just joked around about it after? “Gamora, if you are willing to let this slide without any punishment, then you have grown dulled. The problem here wasn’t just him, though. None of you have bothered to talk to me. If Quill knew what I was capable of then we wouldn’t have been in that mess.” Nebula said, her voice full of venom as she paced down one side of the chamber. The Guardians, save for Gamora, didn’t become hostile but they were clearly unnerved at the thought of Nebula becoming frustrated. Gamora, however, noticed Nebula was acting…different. Flustered, even. The older sister opened her mouth to interject only for Nebula to snap at her, “forget whatever half-assed solution you got. That’s all you ever have. I should just go. I am an assassin, just like you, we don’t belong on here!” Whatever desire to soothe her sister’s worries faded when Nebula threw Gamora’s past life in her face. “You can be fed up but don’t lump me in with you. Do what you want,” Gamora said coldly. Nebula looked at her, surprised and hurt before she walked away toward the back of the ship. 

 

Quill looked at Gamora with disbelief, “really, Gamora? Even I could tell that wasn’t what she wanted to hear.” Gamora just rolled her eyes. Quill shook his head before pursuing Nebula. “How the hell am I supposed to know what to do? Nebula was the weak one. She had the emotions and I had the talent.” Gamora thought, seething. She wasn’t bragging or putting Nebula down, Gamora didn’t care who was better. “Of course, a little argument and Quill is running off to someone else. Again. Let me know when we’re close to that cesspool.” Gamora told the remaining Guardians present before storming off to the armory. Drax and Mantis weren’t too bothered by the arguments but weren’t as cheery anymore. Rocket looked between the directions his friends went and sighed. 

 

“I am Groot…” Asked the little being as he pointed at Gamora’s retreating figure. “I think she is mad with herself more than anyone. You hang around these two while I check on her,” Rocket told Groot as he tried to think of what he’d even say. Groot just nodded before wandering over to Drax and Mantis, who started watching holovids in the nearby rec room. Rocket wished they had someone else to play nanny when he noticed the two man-sized children were debating whether Mantis’ forcing that bug to sleep counted as a kill. “I never thought I’d be missing that jackass with the stupid headfin,” Rocket muttered before he followed Gamora.

 

…

 

Gamora just couldn’t get the release pin for Godslayer out. Usually, she could disassemble her blade for cleaning in less than a second but these damned feelings were ruining her. Her blade was already dripping with sickening brown arthropod blood so when she collapsed it into its travel configuration the gore Godslayer got stuck in that position. She took a deep breath, stuck the tension rod in the side of the pin before she put the pin key into the slot and slowly tried to turn the pin enough for the internal clamps would release. She felt her fingers tremble and her temples heat up with frustration. However, she accidentally put too much horizontal force on the tension rod and her pin key was spat out as the seal closed. “Fuck it!” Gamora yelled before she dropped the tools and threw her head back in her chair.

 

“Try letting it set, crap like that is easier to remove when it’s more condensed.” Rocket recommended as he walked into the room. “I know that. I just…had to do something.” Gamora said with a tired tone of voice. Rocket nodded, “I get you, I had issues with getting pissed from time to time and would want to keep busy.” Gamora scoffed and looked at Rocket with a knowing smirk. His ears lowered a tad bit as he rolled his eyes, “okay, maybe I still have a few problems with anger management. Still, I understand why you’re upset.” Gamora stood up and crossed her arms as she shook her head in denial, “I’m _not_ pissed about Nebula wanting to leave, she can do what she wants.” Gamora felt even more isolated than before, only Rocket or Peter were the type to get her feelings and it was obvious Peter felt how Nebula felt was more important.

 

“You’re upset because she told you who you are, right?”

 

Gamora’s looked at Rocket—speechless. Rocket nodded. “I hate that more than anything. No one can tell us what or who we are. Give her a few minutes to cool off then tell Nebula that you aren’t mad with her. I know saying why you’re pissed is hard but at least try to patch things up with her. Being alone and an asshole isn’t fun.” The half-worlder said softly, trying not to sound like he was ordering her around. The green-skinned woman became silent. Gamora couldn’t believe Rocket read her so well. He usually wasn’t the type to be so observant. “Well, uh, I’ll be going to put Groot to bed for a while. See you later.” Rocket said hurriedly, feeling a bit vulnerable for opening up so much before he turned to leave. 

 

“Rocket…” The raccoon went turned to Gamora, hesitant to hear her response since she went quiet. He was surprised to see she was looking rather bashful. “T-Thanks for coming to check on me, Rocket.” Rocket couldn’t help but notice Gamora could be pretty…cute when she wasn’t putting on a stern face. “Anytime, I’ll let you know when we’re close.” He said with a smile before walking out. It took a moment for Gamora to realize she was eyeing him in a different light. “Wow, calm down. We’re not going there,” Gamora said to herself, though, she didn’t exactly feel she was being truthful.


End file.
